The Philadelphia Flyers: Is Sean Couturier Made of Sun Shine?

The 2017-2018 season has ended in round one elimination of the play offs for the Philadelphia Flyers. Now that we have time to reflect, we ask the big questions. One of those questions is “What ever happened with those predictions made in a super obscure article by a super obscure writer?”. Get ready to find out if said author is getting a new magic 8 ball. Also, how has Sean Couturier’s move to the front line, center position has affected his play, his line mate’s play and the team as a whole?

Sean Couturier

Even though you’re an avid fan and have read the article preceding this one, here are the relevant numbers regarding Sean Couturier’s performance last year and over his career to compare with this season past.

Rounding is in use in the numbers below.

Over his career as a Philadelphia Flyer on the third line he has .17 goals, and .29 assists and .46 points per game.
In the 2016-2017 season, on the third line, he averaged .21 goals, .30 assists and .52 points per game.
All of the figures below regard regular season play for the 2017-2018 season.
Couturier scored 31 goals, made 45 assists and garnered 76 points in total playing on the first line.
This means he averaged .38 goals, .55 assists and .93 points per game.

Now for some comparisons!
Relative to his career as a Philadelphia Flyer on the third line, Couturier has seen a 124% increase in goals, a 90% increase in assists and a 102% increase in points per game this season on the first line.
Correlated to his 2016-2017 season on the third line, we witness a 81% surge in goals, a 83% up swing in assists and a 78% rise in points per game this season on the first line.
This is all very impression and shows that Sean Couturier’s move to the first line has yielded an oh so fabulous harvest.

However, the predictions made in the beginning of the season are the real meat and potatoes of this exercise. Did they hold up?

Let us reminisce.Sean Couturier, over the season, was projected to score 27 goals, provide 59 assists and amass 82 points.
The prediction for goals was +7.8%, for assists was -24% and -7.3% on points. As far as predictions for an 82 game regular season based on a 3 game sample go, goals and points were mildly close. A little surprising. Assists not so much.

Jakub Voracek

How has Jakub Voracek faired over the course of the regular season in the new age of Couturier? Let us ponder.
His career as a Philadelphia Flyer sees him averaging .26 goals, .53 assists and .80 points per game.
The 2016-2017 season had him averaging .24 goals, .50 assists and .74 points per game.
Whilst playing in the light of Sean Couturier front and center in the 2017-2018 season, Jakub
Voracek scored 20 goals, made 65 assists and gathered 85 points over an 82 game season.
This equals .24 goals, .79 assists and 1.03 points per game over the season.

More comparisons!
When held side by side with his career as a Philadelphia Flyer, Jakub Voracek has experienced a 7.7% decrease in goals scored, a 42% swell in assists and a 23% rise in points per game for the 2017-2018 season.
As to the 2016-2017 season, we observe the same number of goals scored, a 58% growth in assists and waxing 22% in points per game in the 2017-2018 season.
This demonstrates that basking in the glow of front and center Sean Couturier makes a person play better and facilitates the synthesis of vitamin D.

Progressively, we examine the truth and accuracy of this season’s predictions.
They were as follows; he was not to score any goals, make 1.33 assists and 1.33 points per game.
Okay the goal prediction was really, really, wrong. No matter how many times it’s multiplied by something, 0 is still 0. There’s not even an accurate percentage to describe how wrong it is. It’s math’s fault.
As for assists, he made 41% fewer per game than predicted and 22.6% fewer points than predicted for the 2017-2018 regular season. The term “wildly inaccurate” would be a fitting description for the prophesized statistics.

Mean while, else where in the world, there is stability among the countries that gave their unconditional surrender to Voracek’s beard. A new age of peace and enlightenment has begun in the affected nations.

Captain Claude Giroux

Captain Claude Giroux is the last individual in this captivating character study.
For the more nostalgic among you, his career as a Philadelphia Flyers Center saw him averaging .24 goals, .60 assists and .88 points per game.

In the 2016-2017 season he was averaging .17 goals, .51 assists and .71 points per game.
His term as a winger and Sean Couturier’s line mate generated 34 goals, 68 assists and 102 points in the 2017-2018 regular season.
This translates to .41 goals, .83 assists and 1.24 points per game.
Related to his career as a Philadelphia Flyer, this is a very impressive 71% increase in goal scoring, a 38% uptick in assists and a 40% swell in points per game.

Evaluated next to the 2016-2017, a time when rumors of injury were rampant, we witness a staggering 141% bloom in goals, a 63% rise in assists and a 43% increase in points per game.
This exhibits the positive impact Sean Couturier’s move to the first line has had on his team mates.

While this information is incredibly fascinating, the questions burns as to whether or not early predictions were accurate. It’s time to kick the tires and light some fires.

Captain Claude Giroux was prophesized to score 19 goals, provide 27 assists and collect 54 points.
He scored 78% more goals, made 152% more assists and an 88% increase in points per game than predicted.
The forecasted number were exceptional erroneous, though it is in all the best ways. Playing with Couturier on the front line has excelled Giroux’s awesomeness even more than a very small sample size would suggest.

The Philadelphia Flyers En Masse

How did the prognosis for the Orange and Black turn out? Not super accurate, but still good in the right ways.
They were cast to score 221 goals, make 385 assists and have 598 points by the time the regular season was all said and done.
In reality, they scored 260 goals, made 442 assists and collected 691 points over the 2017-2018 regular season.
This translates to 17.5% more goals, 15% more assists and a 16% overage in points than foretold. Not accurate but still pretty.

Now for the team statistics. 54 wins, 28 regulation losses and 108 game points were divined. When that “real world” thing happened, the Philadelphia Flyers has 42 wins, 26 regulation losses, 14 losses in over time. This means 98 game points earned for the 2017-2018 season.

This discrepancy creates 28% fewer wins, 7% fewer losses in regulation (yay!), 14 more losses in over time (that whole math thing) and 10.5% fewer points than predicted for the 2017-2018 regular season.

The last and ever relevant act of soothsaying; did the Philadelphia Flyers make the playoff in the Metro Division? They did make the playoffs, but did so in a wild card spot. So the future was 50% right. Perhaps your author needs a new magic 8 ball, but she is having the most fun.

The big question is did this happen because Sean Couturier was moved to the front line?

The 2016-2017 season ended with 88 points and no playoff spot for the Flyers, while 2017-2018 yielded 10 more points for the Orange and Black with Coots in front and center. It is plausible that the increased performance of himself, line mates and the team at large resulted in a play off spot due to the changes made on the front line. Once again, Sean Couturier is so very kind to arrange all that, it’s thoughtful to say the least.

Anon, we decisively arrive at two irrefutable facts. First; Sean Couturier front and center correlates to a good performance by the Philadelphia Flyers. Second; math is no ones friend.